


Old ladies

by Useful_Oxymoron



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Arthritis, Bellamione Cult's July Event 2020, Bickering, Birthday Party, Established Relationship, F/F, Family Fluff, Glasses, NX-project, Old Age
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-27
Updated: 2020-07-27
Packaged: 2021-03-05 23:13:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,333
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25553356
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Useful_Oxymoron/pseuds/Useful_Oxymoron
Summary: Far in the future, Hermione celebrates her cranky wife's bicentennial birthday party. Based on the prompt: 'story of my life' for the Bellamione Cult 2020 july event.
Relationships: Hermione Granger/Bellatrix Black Lestrange
Comments: 14
Kudos: 128





	Old ladies

Hermione couldn't help but chuckle a little. Her wife had often... and _loudly_... proclaimed on numerous occasions that she didn't like to be the center of attention or being around people. In fact, she proclaimed to hate it with a passion. Hermione had never taken her often vainglorious wife's claims very serious and once again, she was proven right.

Bella's favorite chair had been carried out of the mansion and placed on a podium in their sizable yard. Friends and family were mulling about chatting while many baziers were grilling lovely smelling meats. A wizarding band was playing while a huge multi-layered cake waited to be cut and pinatas filled with sweets were being hung up for the children. Above the podium Bellatrix was sat hung a large banner which read 'Bellatrix, 200!'. 

Bellatrix was absolutely loving every moment of this. That grin her face said it all.

Hermione herself was getting rather tired and was glad to be seated: her chair had been set next to Bella's on the podium and Hermione had to expend quite a bit of effort to even get up the small step leading up to it.

“Come on then,” called down Bellatrix from her 'throne', rolling her eyes at her as per usual. “You're a spring chicken barely 170 years old. You shouldn't be groaning.”

Hermione narrowed her eyes. “You weren't the one who had a double hip replacement two months ago.”

While it was true that muggle-borns weren't any less magical than pure-bloods, it was also true that muggle-borns were more prone to muggle ailments when they'd get on in years. The women of the Granger family had a history with arthritis, which she found out after developing a nasty case of double osteoarthritis in her hip. Though was she well on the road to recovery, Bella often teased her about needing a zimmer-frame these days.

Bellatrix, for her part, had aged quite far more gracefully. Her curly-hair had gone gray to stark white in places and while her skin was no longer as smooth as it once had been, signs of age were limited to crow's feet around her eyes and pronounced laugh and marionette lines. One thing where age did manifest in was her eyesight, which had been getting quite poor as of late. 

“You're squinting again,” Hermione chuckled.

“No, I'm not!” Bellatrix replied with a pouty expression.

“Yes you are,” Hermione replied. “Unlike you, I still have my eyesight.”

“Pft, rude.”

“Wear your glasses.”

“No!” Bellatrix looked away. “It makes me look like an old lady.”

“You _are_ an old lady!” added Hermione, pointing up to the banner. “That clearly says '200' up there. Which you could have actually seen if you'd been wearing your glasses.”

“Hmph!” Bellatrix huffed.

“Belle, we always go through the same tiresome dance,” said Hermione. “I nag at you for an hour. You then put on your glasses because you're sick of hearing me nag. Then you get really happy you put on your glasses because you can actually see and your eyes won't get tired, but will never ever admit to it. And when it's time to go to bed, you throw your glasses at the nightstand and curse at me for making you wear your glasses all day. How about we skip all the nagging today and you skip straight to you putting on your glasses.”

“Ugh! FINE!” replied Bellatrix and fumbled for her glasses. She unfolded a rather stylish pair of rimless glasses and placed it on her nose. There was a momentary flash of relief on her face while she looked over the crowd and could actually recognize people before she caught Hermione's gaze and suppressed it.

It made Hermione chuckle briefly.

A wizarding band started playing. Pleasant music. Some of the people were starting to dance. Hermione spotted Andromeda down in the crowd. At only two years younger than Bellatrix, Andie didn't look a day over a hundred. That made Hermione sigh: what was it about the Black sisters which kept them so youthful? Hermione shook her head and considered it was either winning the genetic lottery or, more simple, regular blood sacrifices to a dark god.

The fact that Andie and Bella had long since reconciled was due to the fact that Bellatrix had managed to figure out a way to save Nymphadora Tonks from death by her own hand in the past. Bellatrix had been quite secretive about the whole thing, but it apparently involved a decade of planning, time travel, a Obscurus outbreak in Central London and a pair of calipers. Regardless of the how, a second branch of the family was now alive and well.

“What are you thinking about, hm?” Bellatrix smirked at her... a smirk which could still make her go weak in the knees after all these years.

“Hm?” Hermione muttered. “Oh, just thinking back to the launch of the NX-class. Now that was a beautiful sight.”

“Pfft,” Bellatrix rolled her eyes. “It looked like a fat frying pan with two handles.”

“That's not the point, Belle,” Hermione replied. “Think about it: we went from being confined to a single place in the universe to being able to travel across the void of space to discover that we're not alone in the galaxy. Within our lifetimes, Belle! How are you not more excited? You haven't even been to Mars!”

“Why would I want to?! What's wrong with the planet we are _on_?!” Bellatrix shook her head.

“That's not the point!” Hermione sighed. “Besides, all manner of aliens will also be coming to us regardless. Aren't you excited about that?”

“Great,” Bellatrix rolled her eyes. “So they can steal all our jobs.”

Hermione sighed. Though Bellatrix had been rehabilitated, she still had plenty of outmoded ideas. 

No. No, it wasn't fair to keep calling Bellatrix rehabilitated. She'd been a changed woman for much longer than she had ever been a Death Eater. Though she still bore the scars of those times to rear their ugly head during nightmares invading the comfort of their own bed, most of the times she was just... Bellatrix.

Bellatrix, Grand Matriarch of the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black, wife of celebrated and longest serving Hogwarts Headmistress Hermione Black. Together they looked into the crowd gathered to celebrate Bellatrix' bicentennial, and saw mostly their own offspring. 

“We've done well, haven't we?” Bellatrix said.

“We have,” smiled Hermione.

Together, they had brought the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black back from the brink of extinction. Today, it was thriving like never before. This was exemplified by young Aquila stepping up the podium and approaching her nanas. Aquila, all of four years old, was their latest great-great grandchild. The girl wore a pretty blue dress and let her black curls fly wild in the breeze.

Hermione had to look over the crowd: practically all the women there had curly hair. Those genes were pretty much unexpectedly dominant in the Black family line. 

Hermione grimaced in pain when Aquila draped herself over both their laps and hit a particularly sore spot in her leg. Bellatrix chuckled for a moment. “Nana Mione is an old lady with lots of old lady ailments, sweetie. Here, come sit on Nana Trixie's lap.”

An indignant Hermione couldn't help but blow a raspberry at her wife. But she did laugh when Aquila Black, youngest scion of their house, sat up straight and raised her chin imperiously just like her nana always did. Especially when Bellatrix chuckled and did the same. The two of them looked at their gathered friends and family like two queens looking upon their subjects.

Bellatrix turned to her, looking at her through her glasses. Her wife reached over to take her hand. “I never expected to live this long,” said Bellatrix, gently squeezing her hand. “And without you, I wouldn't have wanted to.”

Hermione smiled: these admissions of tenderness from Bellatrix were still quite rare. “Never change, Belle,” Hermione said, squeezed her hand back.

**Author's Note:**

> Note: Basically, Bella turns 200 in 2151, the same year the NX-01 Enterprise launches. Being the fan I am, I *had* to reference it.


End file.
